Frequently Asked Questions


PLANNING AND SITING THE TURBINE

Q. DO I NEED PLANNING PERMISSION?

A. Planning Permission is required in the UK and it is recommended that prior to purchasing a wind turbine it is important that you contact with your local Planning Department.

Q. WHAT IS THE BEST PLACE TO SITE A WIND TURBINE?

A. In order to benefit from the maximum amount of “clean air” it is recommended that your turbine is located as far away from obstacles such as buildings as possible.

Q. IS MY SITE SUITABLE FOR A WIND TURBINE?

A. We would recommend a desk or site based assessment of your site or sites. This will let you know if your site is suitable for wind turbines. When assessing a site, due care and attention should be given to high obstacles such as trees, buildings and hills which can block the wind flow and significantly reduce the available wind speed.

Q. WHAT OUTPUT CAN I EXPECT FROM A WIND TURBINE?

A. Outputs vary from site to site; site assessment will be needed to work this out. The estimations you receive from this are for indicative purposes only

Q. HOW FAR FROM MY HOUSE DOES THE WIND TURBINE HAVE TO BE?

A. Turbines can be mounted as close as 20 to 50 meters to your home or workplace or as far away as 450 to 500 meters.

Q. HOW MUCH SPACE DO I NEED FOR A WIND TURBINE?

A. Each turbine and tilt-up tower combination requires its own “footprint” on the ground. As a rough guide taking the tower height and multiplying it by 2.5 will give you an approximate clearance space. The width required is the rotor diameter +2m to allow enough space to raise and lower the turbine. Guyed towers might require more space. To discuss your requirements why not complete the enquiry form on our website and someone will call you back to discuss, click on 'buy a wind turbine'.

Q. HOW CAN I FIND OUT ABOUT THE WIND SPEED IN MY AREA?

A. Yes you can follow the link www.bwea.com/noabl/index.html and get an approximation of the wind speed in your area. Web based measurements of wind speed comes with a significant degree of inaccuracy but are a useful tool for initial guidance taking into account local knowledge and the topography of the site. We recommend suitable sites have wind speeds in excess of 5 metres per second and above with good exposure to the prevailing winds and good site access.

Q. ARE THERE ANY GUIDELINES TO HELP WITH MY PLANNING APPLICATION?

A. Yes we can supply planning packs for each of the turbines we offer as well as planning help and guidance.

FINANCIALS – COSTS, INCOME AND BENEFITS

Q. HOW LONG WILL THE TURBINE TAKE TO PAY BACK?

A. The payback time will depend on several factors:

- Installation costs
- Your available wind resource on site
- Grant assistance
- Payment for your electricity

Between five and seven years might be achievable or even exceeded

Q. CAN I GET GRANT ASSISTANCE?

A. Please refer to our website for further details and links to current grants.

Q. IS IT SIMPLE TO APPLY FOR A GRANT?

A. The UK domestic grants are very straightforward. Business and community grants can be a bit more involved but can still be completed by the individual.

Q. HOW MUCH CAN I GET PAID FOR THE ELECTRICITY I PRODUCE?

A. There are various companies who will pay for exporting your electricity to the grid and the price you obtain will vary depending upon the contract you receive. However it is much more cost efficient to use the maximum amount of energy within your property and only export your surplus.

Q. WHAT ARE ROCS AND FIT’S

ROCs are Renewable Obligations Certificates and are a green certificate that you sell to electricity companies. At the end of the year electricity companies can offset the amount of toxins they have produced with these certificates. ROC’s apply to all turbines commissioned before July 2009. FIT’s are Feed-In-Tariff’s and are payable for all energy generated from turbines installed after July 2009. These work similarly to ROC’s in that at the end of each year you receive a payment for every KwH you have produced. Please see our FIT’s section for more details.

Q. WHAT RATE OF VAT WILL I BE CHARGED?

In the UK there are three rates:

15% - Standard rate - Applicable to UK businesses
5% - Reduced rate - UK domestic householders
0% - Zero rate - UK new builds

INSTALLATION OF MY TURBINE

Q. CAN I DO MY OWN FOUNDATION WORK?

A. Yes – We will provide you with guidance and all the instructions and the steelwork required to do this.

Call us on: 01950 431292

Q. CAN I INSTALL A TURBINE MYSELF?

A. Installing the turbine yourself would affect the warranty and also void yourself from many grant schemes, as most require the turbine to be installed by an approved installer.

TECHNOLOGY – HOW DO THEY WORK

Q. HOW DO RESIDENTIAL WIND TURBINES WORK?

A. A wind turbine, which is installed on top of a tower, collects kinetic energy from the wind and converts it to electricity that is compatible with your homes existing electrical system. In a normal residential application, both the wind turbine and your normal utility company serve a home. If the wind speeds are below the cut in speed, there will be no output from the turbine and all the power requirements are purchased from your electricity supplier. As wind speeds build, turbine output increases and the amount of power required from your electricity supplier is proportionately decreased. When the turbine produces more power than the house needs the extra electricity is sold to the national grid.

Q. WILL IT HELP THE ENVIRONMENT IF I INSTALL A WIND TURBINE AT MY HOME?

A. Yes, wind turbines produce no pollution and by using wind power you will be offsetting pollution that would have been generated by your electricity supplier. Over its life a small residential wind turbine can offset approximately 1.2 tonnes of air pollutants and 200 tonnes of greenhouse gases (Carbon dioxide and other gases which cause climate change)

Q. HOW FAST DO THE BLADES TURN?

A. On a domestic scale wind turbine blades commonly rotate between 100 and 250 revolutions per minute at constant speed.

Q. WHAT IS A GRID-CONNECTED SYSTEM?

A. A grid-connected system feeds power directly into your main distribution board and exports power if there is too much back to the grid; you can also take power from the grid. This is a balanced and synchronous system and will not affect your day-to-day living.

Q. WHAT IS A BATTERY CHARGING SYSTEM?

A. A battery charging system provides you with a continuous power source for your house via an inverter, which makes the power from the turbine usable. If you have an off grid site, you would have a diesel generator on stand-by to cover periods when you had no wind at all for a few days (typically because the batteries are sized to give you around 2-3 days worth of storage). If there is too much power from the turbine, it can be diverted into either water or space heating.

Q. WHAT IS A DIRECT HEATING SYSTEM?

A. A direct heating system feeds power directly into a series of small heaters (either water or space heaters) and is used in conjunction with your existing heating system. It is the cheapest of our systems but also the most dedicated as you only get power for heat – and you only get that heat when there is wind. Heat can be stored in water or storage heaters and released at times of calm.

Q. IS THERE A LEGAL REQUIREMENT FOR GRID CONNECTION?

A. G-83/1 and G-59/1 are the electrical recommendations that apply in the UK. If a turbine is under 16A per Phase then G-83/1 applies. If it is over 16A per Phase then G-59/1 applies. G- 83/1 is more a notification of connection to the grid whereas G-59/1 seeks permission to connect. This is a legal requirement, which all small-scale and large-scale generators have to adhere to.

Q. WILL A TURBINE KEEP PRODUCING ELECTRICITY IN A POWER CUT?

A. A grid-connected turbine will have to disconnect for safety reasons if there is a power cut. This is a legal requirement.

Q. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN IT IS NOT WINDY?

A. If your turbine is battery connected, power is stored in the battery which you can use when there is no wind. If your turbine is grid connected and you sell excess power to the grid, when there is no wind, your power will come from the grid.

Q. DO THE TURBINES STOP IN HIGH WINDS?

A. Each turbine manufacturer has its own method of dealing with high winds but this scale of turbines unlike commercial wind turbines do not shut down in higher wind speeds.

Q. ARE THE TURBINES NOISY?

A. Noise data can be provided when required ie for planning applications etc. We don’t think domescic size wind turbines are noisy. We think that the best way to judge this for yourself is to go and listen to a similar size turbine on a similar site.

SAFETY

Q. DO WIND TURBINES MAKE A NOISE OR INTERFERE WITH TV RECEPTION?

A. Small wind turbines do make some noise, but not enough to concern most people. Wind turbines do not interfere with TV reception.

Q. DO WIND TURBINES FRIGHTEN LIVESTOCK?

A. Wind farming is popular with farmers, because their land can continue to be used for growing crops or grazing livestock. Wind turbines do not disturb sheep, cows and horses.

Q. DO TURBINES KILL BIRDS?

A. Bird strikes do happen very rarely. We take care to site turbines away from bird feeders and nests as well as to identify migratory flight-paths where appropriate. The turbines rotate at a slow rpm and our black blades can be detected by birds from several hundred meters – allowing them to adjust their course appropriately. Vehicles, building windows and natural predators kill millions more birds a year than are killed or injured by wind turbines.

Q. DO TURBINES INTERFERE WITH ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT?

A. No, there is no interference whatsoever with electrical equipment.

Q. DO TURBINES INTERFERE WITH TELECOMS, RADIO OR TV EQUIPMENT?

A. No, turbines do not. We have a number of turbines at telecoms bases for a variety of leading telecoms companies including O2, Orange and T-mobile.

Q. DO THE TURBINES PRODUCE RADIATION?

A. No they do not produce radiation.

Q. DO THE TURBINES PRODUCE ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS?

A. No they do not produce electromagnetic fields or affect any equipment in the vicinity.

Q. WILL THE TURBINE AFFECT MY OR MY NEIGHBOUR’S PROPERTY PRICE?

A. No, it could add value to your property if you generate your own energy supply and your neighbour’s property prices should not be affected.

SERVICING

Q. WHAT IS THE SERVICING FREQUENCY?

A. The turbines require annual servicing, by an accredited installer. As part of the warranty agreement, the turbine has to be serviced annually.

Q. WHAT IS INVOLVED IN SERVICING?

A. Once a year, the turbine is lowered to ground level (using the hinged tower), the covers are removed and a full service of parts is conducted.

Q. CAN I DO MY OWN SERVICING?

A. Manufacturers stipulate certain standards/ requirements for servicing whilst under warranty. Outwith the warranty period we would encourage you to take out a service agreement.

Q. CAN I GET A SERVICE AND MAINTENANCE PLAN?

A. Yes, service and maintenance plans are available and a quotation for this can be prepared for you.

Call us on: 01950 431292